They Won!

The kids entered their pumpkins at the local fair and won! They are SO excited..and I am too.

They worked so hard on them. The girls practiced for a long time trying to paint their horses to make them look right!

They were very creative adding special touches to their cowboy themed pumpkins. E added some cactuses and S added a horseshoe.

I will take more detailed pics when we get the pumpkins back so you can see the other sides of the pumpkin. Right now they are on display at the fair..if you go be sure to stop by and take a first hand look!

B won 3rd place for his Buckeye pumpkin!

S won 1st place!



E's 1st place pumpkin!





Congratulations kids....I am so proud of each of you for your hard work!

Pumpkin Decorating Contest

Every year, my kids enjoy entering the Pumpkin Decorating Contest. This contest is not the traditional carving contest instead it is painting or drawing on a pumpkin! This is all part of the annual festival in a nearby city.

We have fun every year trying to decide what to paint on their pumpkins. They usually want to do something big and elaborate, but then reality sets in. It is harder than you think to paint on a pumpkin, but it is so much fun to see the creative juices begin to flow!

The festival has a theme every year that you can fit into your design or you can come up with your own design. We love to visit the exhibit at the fair and see what ideas every one else came up with! People have turned their pumpkins into everything from a pig to a strawberry to a football player..the possibilities are endless!

The kids just love that it is THEIR creation..no help is allowed from the adults!

Can you guess what B did with his pumpkin?

A Buckeye pumpkin, of course! Pretty good writing, huh!

S worked hard on fitting her pumpkin into the theme.... "A Peanut Round-Up"



I think she did a fantastic job!






E also went with the theme.




She did a cowgirl riding a horse along with another cowgirl ..notice the pink cowgirl boots! How cute is that!?

Corn Maze and Hay Rides

What is fall without corn mazes and hay rides?

Daddy hid in the corn maze waiting to jump out and scare us!

We made it out..but daddy was still hiding in the maze waiting to scare us a second time...

M with my mom

B, our future tractor driver!

Heritage Festival

We had a fantastic day at the local Heritage Festival. There were a lot of demonstrations about life on a farm in the 1890's and the ways the farmers would harvest their crops, specifically peanuts.

We enjoyed watching the workers harvest the peanuts..of course, they were using the old fashion ways of doing it! What fun it was to see it up close!

We enjoyed the fruits of their labor. They dumped the freshly picked peanuts into a wagon for us all to enjoy!

We also watched the tractor pull which was a first for Scot.

Check out the pink tractor! Our girls loved "her"!

We also had fun exploring the farm seeing what life was like for people in the early 1900's. They demonstrated what it was like to wash clothes, churn butter, make sugar cane, quilting, cooking, weaving, just to name a few. It was fun for the kids to see how much work life was without all the conveniences we have today.

One of the nice workers chopped sugar cane for the kids to take home. He even showed them what to do to plant their own. Who knows we may have sugar cane growing on our land someday!

It was such a fun day spent with the ones I love the most..my family!

Ice Skating

Yes, we ice skate in the south...who cares that it is at a mall. It is still ice skating, right?



Ice Skating has become a family tradition every time we visit a nearby city that is home to the mall ice skating rink. We have had so much fun on that rink! We laugh and act silly. I think we all just enjoy the undivided attention of spending time together as a family doing something fun and out of the ordinary.


E has went ice skating at this mall at least one time each year for the last 5 years. She is getting pretty good at it. She wants to do figure eights, the twirls and all the fancy jumps that she sees real skaters do. I wish I could do it too. My goal is just to stay on my feet!


This was really the first time for S to be out on the ice for any length of time. Last year, she went out there for maybe 10 minutes and then realized she did not enjoy falling. Now being a year older, she was determined to learn. At first, she hung onto the sides. I finally convinced her to hold my hand and venture away from the wall.


We then made it straight down the middle of the rink. By the end of our 2 and half hour session, she was skating to me by herself. I was so proud of her. She was so brave!


B was upset that he could not skate this time, but he still has on his cast. There was no way I was letting him out on the ice!

Maybe one day we will be able to experience ice skating on a frozen lake...well actually, I am not so sure I would want to do that...maybe we will still stick with the mall rink after all!

Charlotte's Web

The three older kids and I went to see Charlotte's Web at our state Shakespeare Festival. We had a great time. I love that the kids are old enough to enjoy plays.

I love to hear them laugh at the silly parts. I love to talk to them afterwards about their favorite parts and hear why they liked it. For Charlotte's Web, I think we all agreed it was the chase scene. Wilbur came and sat in the audience hiding from Mr. Zuckerman ....they all thought it was the funniest thing!

I love to hear what they think about the different characters and get their take on the actors dressed in the costumes. B was not fooled by the guy who played three different characters...mainly because he had air cast on his sprained foot. B said I know it is him, just look at his leg!

E loved Charlotte the most. She thought it was neat how they were able to do the writing in Charlotte's web. (It really was creative!)

S loved Templeton and his goggles. She also loved Wilbur's nose. During the Q and A time with the actor's, the guy who played Wilbur showed how the nose moved everytime he breathed! S thought it was funny so she liked Wilbur's nose...it's funny the little things that they find interesting!

Days like today...moments spent together watching a play with the kids...seeing the joy on their faces...it is just priceless!

She Loves It!

M has a new favorite breakfast. I remember when she only wanted bananas for breakfast, then only eggs, and then there was the times when only pancakes would do, and now.....





its Raisin "Ban"





I don't think there could be many other 2 year olds that says "I want Raisin Ban, Mommy."

2 more weeks

We went to the doctor today for B's arm. I can't believe it has been 4 weeks since he broke it! He has been such big boy about it. Thankfully, he has not complained and it really has not been a big deal at all.

They took his old cast off. Of course, we ALL thought it was the coolest thing to watch them saw it off!

He wasn't scared, he just sat there quietly while the assistant sawed right through, pried it open and cut through the cloth.

Finally his arm was free! I will spare you the details on just how gross his cast was.... 4 weeks of sweat and dirt...you get the picture!

As crazy as it may sound, it was actually weird to see his arm without the camo cast.

I washed his arm really good and then they took him to get it x-rayed.

When the doctor came back in, he said it was healing just fine. He showed us the new bone growth. He also showed us an area on the other bone with new growth meaning that he actually broke both bones in his arm! This was something that even the doctor did not know before!

Because his arm is still real tender and they found this second break, he felt that he should wear a cast for 2 more weeks!

I was just fine with that! If not, I would worry that he would injure it again before it was completely healed!

So now at least he has a nice clean camo cast that smells good...at least for today!